About
Background
East Bay College Fund is a community-based non-profit organization that provides substantial scholarships, mentoring, on-going college counseling and life skills training to East Bay (primarily Oakland) public high school students from low income families and communities with historically low college attendance rates.
East Bay College Fund was formed in 2002 by a committed group of East Bay citizens, educators, and community activists, and is modeled after the highly successful San Francisco-based Meritus College Fund.
In its first year, East Bay College Fund awarded seven $16,000 four-year Great Expectations scholarships with mentoring support to Oakland public high school students who began college in Fall 2003. In 2004 ten scholarships were granted, in 2005 thirteen scholarships were awarded. Sixteen scholarships were awarded in Spring of 2006 and an additional sixteen were awarded in Spring of 2007.
Grass roots efforts and contributions from a wide variety of individuals and foundations continue to grow, enabling East Bay College Fund to support over 60 continuing scholars and grant at least 15 additional awards annually.
East Bay College Fund recognizes the importance of collaborating with other organizations focused on helping youth pursue their educational goals. East Bay College Fund is proud to have working relationships with Summer Search, Faces for the Future, Upward Bound, College Track, Girls Inc and American Indian Child Resource Center.
East Bay College Fund is a 501 (c)(3) tax-exempt organization.